This invention pertains to an improved mirror assembly of a type which can be lighted and which can be built into a sun visor for an automobile or other motor vehicle. Such an assembly may be called a lighted vanity mirror assembly.
It is known for a lighted vanity mirror assembly of the type noted above to be provided with one or more lamps, which may be energized by means of an electrical circuit including a switch, and for the electrical circuit to be mounted, along with the mirror, in a plastic case having a hinged cover and being built into a sun visor. When the cover is swung by a user from a closed position, in which the cover lies over the mirror, to an opened position, a mirror is uncovered and the switch is actuated by the swinging cover so as to energize the lamp or lamps, which illuminates or illuminate the mirror. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,470, U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,404, U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,468, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,241.
As exemplified in the patents noted above, a metal backing member, which supports discrete components of the electrical circuit, may be adhered to a vanity mirror, over its back face, by means of an adhesive backing strip of polyurethane foam or similar material. The backing strip covers and adheres to the back face of the mirror so as to prevent shards of mirror glass from falling if the mirror happens to shatter. U.S. Pat. No. 3,375,364 discloses a vinyl or other polymeric backing member adhered to the back face of a vanity mirror for a similar purpose.
Heretofore, a lighted vanity mirror assembly of the type noted above has been regarded as a somewhat difficult to manufacture and somewhat expensive accessory. There has been a need, to which this invention is addressed, for a simpler, less expensive way to make a lighted vanity mirror assembly of the type noted above.